Originally posted by Joecool:Originally posted by kem99:
It occurred to me this morning as to whether the 49ers are essentially the Vikings pre-Favre at this point.
1. The defense is pretty good and seems to be getting better, 4th in points allowed, top 7 against the rush, improving pass rush, should get better with Brooks and Clements (probably) playing the entire year.
2. Gore is the 49ers answer to Peterson. He's not as good as AD at this point but he's a pretty good complete back.
3. The 49er receivers, including Davis, are probably better than the Viking receivers were at this point last year.
4. Vikings have the better OL but even they struggled at times this year running the ball and protecting Favre. The 49er OL got better as the year went along and hopefully gets better with some help in FA and/or the draft.
5. The Vikings has Tavares Jackson at QB who had struggled, had some bright moments, etc. He was probably approaching a do or die season right up until Favre signed.
6. The Vikings drafted Harvin, which helped their return game immensely (remember the game against the 49ers).
Not likely a Favre-type option becomes an option but if such an option did present itself, the 49ers might be that close if they can address the return game and the OL in the draft/FA.
A QB makes an offense, not the OL. If Alex is going to morph into Favre, then who knows.
MIN had terrible pass protection last year ranked 26th in the league allowing 43 sacks with basically no new additions in their OL. They have a rookie RT this year and this year, they are ranked 15 in allowing 34 sacks.
A QB makes a huge difference. Our problem is that can Alex get the ball out faster and make quicker reads because the 49ers are ranked 22nd in sacks allowed which is better than the Vikings last year.
Actually Alex took fewer sacks per pass attempt than Favre. Favre took one sack for every 15.6 pass attempts (34/531). Alex took one sack for every 16.9 pass attempts (22/372). It was Hill or the line play during Hill's time behind center that really hurt the Niners' sack total. Hill took one sack for every 8.6 pass attempts (18/155).
